This week I have a bit of bass guitar history for y’all. You see without a certain little company by the name of Fender Guitars chances are I would not be blogging about music right now.
Back in 1951, shortly after the advent of electric guitars, electrical engineer Leo Fender and his employee George Fullerton got to work designing the world’s first production bass guitar: the Fender Precision Bass (P-Bass for short). This single pick-up beauty had a neck that was bolted on a slab body much like the earlier Fender Telecaster guitar.
1950's Standard P-Bass
Prior to this invention the low end of music was almost always taken care of by an upright bass (double-bass). These massive violin shaped instruments were hard to transport and very temperamental depending on the climate, not to mention the fact that playing them took years of practice. The P-Bass solved all these problems in one fell swoop. It was light-weight, not especially climate sensitive and could easily be picked up by any guitarist.
In the years that followed the electric bass guitar took the music world by storm. Fender’s major electric guitar rival, Gibson, released its own line of bass guitars with the EB-1 and the EB-0 and smaller companies like Rickenbacker and Danelectro released their own takes on the electric bass. Fender continued to rock the industry when they released the dual pick-up offset waist Jazz Bass (aka the J-Bass) and improved the P-Bass with a new “humbucking” split coil pick-up.
A classic 60's P-Bass
Nowadays Fender bass guitars are still an industry standard and undoubtedly the most common basses out there. Most bassists have at least one Fender in their collection and more often than not it is their main go-to bass for gigs, recording, jamming and practice.
Love for Fender also just so happens to be in my blood. My dad has an old 77’ American made J-Bass that is in absolutely spectacular condition with the original case and all the original hardware still intact. It is hands-down the most awesome instrument I have ever played. Even though I love finding strange off-beat and rare instruments a classic Fender bass just feels like home to me. I’ve owned 3 or 4 of them in my time as a bassist and my personal favorite is my Japanese made Aerodyne P-Bass. It has a P and J pick-up configuration, a flame maple top and a bound body that is thinner (and lighter) than most Fender basses. Unfortunately Fender discontinued the line shortly after I bought it so it’s a bit tricky to get your hands on one.
The Monk Montgomery (bass player sitting in between the two drummers in this video) is the very first professional musician to use a Fender P-Bass on tour. Just saying.
bassrespect 
Fender is home for me, too. Fantastic post!
Warwick thumb bass for me. It just felt ‘right’ in my hands.